Atita Verghese is India’s foremost female skater. She discovered skateboard culture through the country’s Holystoked crew who built India’s first DIY skatepark in Bangalore. As soon as she set foot on a board, her life changed forever- and she has never looked back.

In 2014, Atita founded Girl Skate India, an NGO which encourages young women to follow her path into the great big world of skateboarding for themselves.

Atita is an inspiration to women worldwide- but especially in India, a nation of a billion souls where skating is still in its infancy. Having learned how to mix concrete and shape transitions with the Holystoked collective, she has worked on the majority of skatepark builds throughout her home country to this day.

Along the way, skateboarding has seen her feature in many adverts, a TED talk, landed her roles in movies and even a cameo appearance in the Netflix show Skater Girl.

In a society where opportunities for girls to be free of social constraints and have fun are thin on the ground, Atita does more than just provide boards, pads or lessons- she has created a one-woman movement.

That has to be something worth checking out.